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Hillsborough, N.C. — An attorney for a Chapel Hill man accused of shooting and killing his parents more than two years ago has asked that a wrongful death lawsuit be dismissed.

Claiming Adam Sapikowski was insane, the defense attorney provided psychiatric reports in which Sapikowski claimed his parents abused him for several years and that his father hit him with a baseball bat on several occasions.

The executor of James and Alison Sapikowski's estate and trustees of several family trusts filed the wrongful death suit in April.

Adam Sapikowski was 16 years old in May 2005 when police found his parents' bodies wrapped in blankets behind a barricaded door in their Chapel Hill home. Investigators believe they had been there for weeks.

"The families reject and strongly disagree with the characterizations of Jim and Alison Sapikowski by the man who is accused of murdering them," the Sapikowski family said in a written statement Friday afternoon, adding that they are "confident the truth will be properly revealed."

Last year, defense attorneys filed court notices indicating several different trial defenses they may adopt, including insanity, diminished capacity and self-defense.

Sapikowski has undergone several psychological evaluations and at one point was under a suicide watch at Raleigh's Central Prison after he told Orange County Jail officials he was afraid he would end up doing something "crazy" to himself.

The case could go to trial early next year.

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jkuwalik2Nov 3, 2007

2 and a half years and he has not gone to trial yet. Whatever happen to the right to a speedy trial? I understand that our government moves at the speed of a turtle, but who's decides what speedy is this?

shineNov 3, 2007

There were circustances in this case if I remember that would lead me to believe that he was not insane at the time he did this.... He may be insane now after being locked up for a while. Don't know - I can't remember the case that well.

jkuwalik2Nov 2, 2007

What do they want, his dollar a day he will amke in prison?

WRALSUCKSNov 2, 2007

This seems a case where "the best defense is a good offense". I'm not sure why someone being hit with a bat (maybe) sometime in the distant past is supposed to justify premeditated murder, but I hope the dude gets off his suicide watch soon.